TN government blames UPA tax policy for Nokia plant shutdown

Chennai: Tamil Nadu government on Saturday blamed the erstwhile Congress led UPA Government's tax policies for the suspension of production by Finnish mobile handset maker Nokia at its plant here but said it was trying to find a solution to the issue.

"Nokia had faced some problems (in Tamil Nadu). This is not because of the state government, but because of retrospective taxes which were imposed on companies by the previous Central Government," state Industries Minister P Thangamani said.

Speaking at the curtain raiser event of Global Investor's Meet 2015 to be held here in May, he, however, said "Our Government is trying to find solutions to this problem to the extent possible".

Nokia suspended operations at its Chennai handset plant at nearby Sriperumbudur from November 1, 2014 amid tax issues leaving the future of about 1,100 employees uncertain and prompting them to stage several agitations.

The plant was providing jobs to 10,000 people indirectly in the Sriperumbudur region. On the status of memorandum of understanding signed with several companies, Thangamani said, "since May 2011, Tamil Nadu has attracted investments of over Rs 31,706 crore in 33 MoU projects that is expected to generate direct and indirect employment for 1.62 lakh persons".

Tamil Nadu ranked third next to Maharashtra and New Delhi in attracting foreign direct investments, he said.